January 2025
Time to make: 3 hours
Finishing: 1 hour
Original design: Tell & Don Gubler
It is said that the Babylonian's created the abacus as one of the earliest methods of counting and calculations before written numbers. Though I can do simple addition and subtraction, apparently multiplication, division, square and cube roots can also be done on an
abacus. The Roman abacus could even do simple fractions (ie. 1/4, 1/2, and 1/12). I guess I'll stick to binary because after all "there are 10 kinds of people in the world who know binary".
This slide looked so simple to make...It ended up taking a lot of painstaking work.
Made from some scrap black walnut, the first task I had was to make a simple frame. Not as easy as it seems because the angle had to be nearly perfect. Next I needed to cut slots in the top and bottom for the wood on the inside and these had to line up just right. Gluing was another challenge since I did not have clamps small enough to hole the pieces in place at a right angle. The rods were drilled in place using quilting pins and as the pin penetrated the wood, I added the beads. Once the pins had come through the far side, I clipped the pins off with wire cutters. Using a fine metal file, I filed the pins flush with the wood. Butcher's wax was used to finish the slide off.
No comments:
Post a Comment